Do You Remember Mitochondria?

Abstract

Dementia is one among the consequences of aging, and amnesia is often one of the most common symptoms. The lack of memory, as a consequence of both "healthy" aging or neurodegenerative conditions, such as in Alzheimer's disease, has a dramatic impact on the patient's lifestyle. In fact, the inability to recall information made by a previous experience could not only alter the interaction with the environment, but also lead to a loss of identity. Mitochondria are key regulators of brain's activity; thanks to their "dynamic organelles" nature they constantly rearrange in the cell body and move along axons and dendrites, changing in dimension, shape, and location, accordingly to the cell's energy requirements. Indeed, the energy they can provide is essential to maintain synaptic plasticity and to ensure transmission through presynaptic terminals and postsynaptic spines. Stressful conditions, like the ones found in neurodegenerative diseases, seriously impair mitochondria bioenergetic, leading to both loss of proper neuronal interaction and of neuron themselves. Here, we highlighted the current knowledge about the role of mitochondria and mitochondrial dynamics in relation to neurodegenerative disorders linked to aging. Furthermore, we discuss the obstacles as well as the future perspectives aimed to enlarge our knowledge about mitochondria as target for new therapeutic strategies to slow down aging and neurodegenerative disease's symptoms.

FGF21 restores hippocampual mitochondrial dysfunction via enhancing Nrf2/HO-1 and AMPK/SirT1/PGC-1α signaling pathways to alleviate chronic unpredictable mild stress induced depressive like behaviors in mice

“…Mitochondrial dynamics are crucial for regulating morphology, function, number, and subcellular distribution (Burté et al 2015). Mitochondrial fusion allows mitochondria to increase ATP and OXPHOS production, to exchange mitochondrial DNA, and to dilute possible organelle's damage (Messina et al 2020). On the other hand, mitochondrial fission results into increased ROS production and signaling toward cell death by apoptosis (Messina et al 2020).…”

The Challenge by Multiple Environmental and Biological Factors Induce Inflammation in Aging: Their Role in the Promotion of Chronic Disease

“…propose that the DNA methylation could be better associated with the low-grade chronic inflammation than CRP ( 237 ). In addition, the age-related mitochondrial dysfunction, with the resulting oxidative stress and decreased ATP production ( 241 ), affect the expression and activity of DNA methyltransferases, which are responsible for maintaining the methylation pattern of DNA ( 242 ). The reduced methylation results in the demethylation of the TNFα promoter in leukocytes and macrophages ( 243 ) and the adhesion of immune cells to the endothelium ( 244 ).…”

Investigating the potential mechanisms of depression induced-by COVID-19 infection in patients

“…It is well established that mitochondria have a pivotal role in ATP production, calcium hemostasis, the balance of oxidative factors, regulation of apoptosis, and neurotransmitter release in the axonal terminal. Mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to the pathogenesis of many diseases, including depression [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] , [47] , [48] . So, the dysfunction of mitochondria caused by COVID-19 may be a mechanism of COVID-19 induced depression.…”